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Dessert

German Puffs

A light, airy cake made with milk, eggs, flour, baking soda, butter, and salt, baked in a teacup or mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter teacups or an earthen mold.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then set them aside.

  2. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with half the milk and half the flour until smooth.

  3. Add the remaining milk and flour to the mixture.

  4. Warm the butter and stir it into the mixture.

  5. Beat the batter until light and bubbly.

  6. Gently fold in the baking soda.

  7. Gently fold in the egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into the prepared cups or mold.

  2. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

  3. Serve with butter and sugar or your preferred sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trapped by beating give the cake its light, airy structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the starch and protein that set during baking to form the cake's body.
Milk
Supplies moisture that turns to steam in the oven, helping the cake puff and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while stiff. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles intact, so the batter rises well in the oven; stirring hard would deflate them and leave a dense cake.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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